Home Cooking Again
After a road trip lasting eleven days, covering about 2800 miles, with
attendance at three major gatherings, my trusty UAW-built 1999 Ford Contour got
me back home last night. It’s good to be enjoying home cooking, a familiar
keyboard–and other household comforts again. I thank Carrie Hewitt, Adam and Sam
Shils in Chicago, and Bob Mast in Detroit, for giving me first class
accommodations in their homes. And, of course, I should acknowledge the many
contributions of Mary Erio in making this trip possible.

This
"Fortnight In Review" is a brief initial report on the meetings I attended as
well as reestablishing the rhythm of our regular Week In Review column. I will
have more to say about the USLAW and Labor Party INC meeting in future articles.

US Labor Against the War Leadership Assembly
USLAW is a remarkable success story in at least four ways:

It has
organized principled labor opposition to a shooting war in progress on a scale
unprecedented in American history. More than a hundred union and labor-based
organizations have affiliated and USLAW organized passage of strong antiwar
resolutions at national conventions of such major unions as SEIU and CWA, as
well as state feds such as California, Wisconsin, and Washington.

In a welcome
departure from organized labor’s often shady past, it has worked in a spirit
of genuine internationalism. Early on USLAW started making contact with, and
raising material support for the heroic trade union movement emerging in
Iraq--despite attempts by the U.S. occupation to suppress them.

It has
nurtured a growing network of labor activists who are searching for a new
future for American labor.

It is a
positive example of "bottom-up" building in the labor movement. USLAW was
formed by a few dozen labor activists responding to a resolution by a single
local union–Teamsters 705 in Chicago–in January, 2003. It has been
"boot-strapping" all the way.

The December 4
Leadership Assembly was attended by about 135, delegates from affiliated
organizations or observers prepared to recommend affiliation to their labor
body. The first question posed to them by the outgoing steering committee was
"should USLAW continue in business?" That was one of the few points in the
gathering where there was enthusiastic unanimity.

The agenda
centered on a "Plan of Work" proposed by the steering committee which focused
on:

Growth and
development of USLAW as a coalition
Building the peace movement within labor and labor’s presence within the peace
movement.
Connecting the war in Iraq to the war on workers at home.
International solidarity.

In a future
article I will deal in greater detail with the rich discussion and important
decisions that came out of this ambitious agenda point. For now I want to
concentrate on immediate needs to implement the work the body projected.

To assist the
two original, tireless, unpaid national co-conveners, Gene Bruskin and Bob
Muehlenkamp, Nancy Wohlforth, a leader in OPEIU and Pride At Work, was
designated to that post as well. In addition, one or two people of color will be
ratified by the steering committee in the near future.

To deal with
increasing organizational opportunities and demands the budget adopted provides
for full-time, and half-time paid staff.

For this
expanded budget to work means stepping up fund-raising through additional
affiliations, and financial and in-kind contributions from supporting
organizations. A good start was made at the meeting with SEIU contributing
50,000 and CWA 10,000 dollars. Numerous other smaller pledges from assembled
groups got us off on the right foot.

Individual
membership is also an important resource. If you are not a current member of
USLAW you can sign up online by clicking
here.

I accepted an
assignment to help coordinate USLAW’s educational resources–our "Toolbox."
Because that will require a lot of time I decided not to run for reelection to
the USLAW steering committee though, at the chapter’s pleasure, I will continue
to represent Kansas City Labor Against the War on the leadership council
that includes representatives from all affiliates.

Labor Party Interim National Council
The 2004 election campaign–which seemed interminable–was a tough period for the
Labor Party.
Virtually the entire labor movement was focused almost solely on electing John
Kerry and was not open to any other political discussion. So it was logical for
the first post-election gathering of the Labor Party INC to pose the same
question as the USLAW meeting began with: do we want to continue this project?
The answer was the same resounding "yes!"

We were not
about to give up the considerable past accomplishments of crafting an excellent
program for working class political struggle, a principled
approach to electoral politics, and a perspective of
building a mass working class party rooted in the unions while also creating
community units open to all.

We were proud
of our newspaper, Labor Party Press.

Even during
the worst conditions the party was able to promote its
Just Health
Care , Free Higher Ed and
Worker
Rights campaigns. National organizer Mark Dudzic made
presentations on the health care issue to union gatherings, and the Meeting the
Challenge conference in St Paul. The Merced, California Labor Party chapter, in
collaboration with the League of Women Voters, sponsored a successful
panel–along with a short play–on health care in September. The party’s chapter
in Gainesville, Florida has a local Committee of 100 going to work for Just
Health Care. The
Ohio Labor Party is playing a leading
role in a giant petition project aimed at establishing a single-payer system in
that state. Just after the election Adolph Reed spoke to a series of successful
meetings in the Twin Cities about Free Higher Ed--initiated by Labor Party
members, with a wide range of labor and academic co-sponsors.

Mark Dudzic’s
article, After the Elections: What Next?, set the
tone for our discussion. I had a chance to meet with Labor Party members in
Chicago and Detroit on the way to the Washington INC meeting. Like those in
Kansas City, they strongly agreed with Dudzic’s statement, "We
must build a Labor Party out of the ashes of this election." One relatively new
member in Detroit declared that far from being depressed we should be optimistic
about the prospects of the Labor Party. This sentiment could be felt among the
INC as well.

The Labor
Party is positioned to make a strong contribution to the discussion now raging
within the labor movement in the wake of Kerry’s defeat--and the certainty of
unprecedented attacks on working people as Bush spends his "political capital."
We should find a wider hearing than ever before among leaders and activists not
only in the labor movement but in social movements as well.

With a renewed
sense of commitment the INC discussed how to relaunch the Labor Party project.
Now that our affiliates are no longer weighed down with the burden of Kerry’s
race we expect to once again involve them in Labor Party issue campaigns. We
want to convince some of our "fallen away" individual members to rejoin us in
our efforts. And we are confident that as we join in debates, write articles,
distribute our paper and other literature, hold public events, and participate
in the various mass movements, we will find many fresh recruits to the effort to
build a party of our own.

There are some
similarities between the USLAW and Labor Party projects. Each are based on both
affiliated unions and individual members. Both, unfortunately, are hard pressed
for money. While organized labor dumped more than a quarter of a billion dollars
on Kerry’s Bush Lite fiasco, the Labor Party has had to make do on less than one
percent of that amount. The Labor Party project urgently needs–and richly
deserves–money and in-kind support from our unions if we are to provide a
political party we can truly call our own.

Concurrently
with our political projects we have to learn to pay our own way. We won’t have
an H Ross Perot, a George Soros, or even a Ben or Jerry as angels. Bosses
support boss parties–workers must pay for workers’ parties. A rejuvenated party
means many more affiliations are needed, many more individual members must be
signed up, and state and local party bodies have to find ways to finance our own
activities.

If you are not
already a member of the Labor Party I urge you to join us. In the long run this
is the only hope for the future of working people.

Cross Border Tour
The Cross Border Network For Justice and Solidarity is organizing a tour to
Reynosa, Rio Bravo and Valle Hermoso in the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, January
5-9. This is not for tourists. The goal is to see first-hand what corporate
dominated globalization means for Mexico and what our future will be if we don’t
work together to stop the race to the bottom. $400 includes: transportation by
car from Kansas City, travel, food, and lodging (double) in Mexico. There are
also air options for folks around the country to meet up with the Kansas City
group in McAllen, Texas. For more information contact Judy Ancel,
jancel@igc.org
or 913-677-2158.